This invention relates to cloth spreading machines, and more particularly to a portable clamp device for selective mounting in any predetermined position upon the cutting table in the path of a switch actuator element on a cloth spreading machine moving over the cutting table.
Heretofore, in cloth spreading operations, one type of cloth spreading machine is provided with a plunger-actuated switch, and more particularly a plunger-actuated reversing switch. A stop plate or stop device is semi-permanently secured by bolts or C-clamps along the side of the cutting table over which the cloth spreading machine travels, in a predetermined position, where reversal of movement of the cloth spreading machine is desired. In a cloth spreading operation in which a catcher mechanism is mounted at the end of the reciprocal course of the cloth spreading machine for folding the cloth as the machine is reversed, the stop device is fixed in a position on the cutting table adjacent the catcher mechanism.
Examples of such prior stop devices are disclosed in the prior U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,082,258 of Hoyt L. Smith Re27,538 of Thomas W. Martin et al, and 3,400,927 of Thomas W. Martin, Sr., et al.
Occasionally, it is desirable to change the length of the course over which the cloth spreading machine travels in order to vary the length of the spread layers of cloth. In such instances, the stop device must be disassembled from the cutting table by unbolting the stop device, removing it, and relocating the stop device in the new reversing position. Such an operation is time-consuming.